FreeBSD 10.4-STABLE README

The FreeBSD Project

This document gives a brief introduction to FreeBSD
10.4-STABLE. It includes some information on how to
obtain FreeBSD, a listing of various ways to contact the FreeBSD
Project, and pointers to some other sources of
information.

1.Â Introduction

This distribution is a snapshot of FreeBSD
10.4-STABLE, the latest point along the 10.4-STABLE
branch.

1.1.Â About FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for
AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (amd64), Intel,
AMD, Cyrix or NexGen “x86” based PC hardware
(i386), Intel Itanium Processor based computers
(ia64), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles
(pc98), and UltraSPARCÂ® machines (sparc64).
Versions for the ARMÂ® (arm), MIPSÂ® (mips), and
PowerPCÂ® (powerpc) architectures are currently under
development as well. FreeBSD works with a wide variety of
peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything
from software development to games to Internet Service
Provision.

This release of FreeBSD contains everything you need to run
such a system, including full source code for the kernel and
all utilities in the base distribution. With the source
distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire
system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for
students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it
all works.

A large collection of third-party ported software (the
“Ports Collection”) is also provided to make it
easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional
UNIXÂ® utilities for FreeBSD. Each “port” consists
of a set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install
a piece of software, with a single command. Over
24,000 ports, from editors to programming languages to
graphical applications, make FreeBSD a powerful and comprehensive
operating environment that extends far beyond what's provided
by many commercial versions of UNIXÂ®. Most ports are also
available as pre-compiled “packages”, which can
be quickly installed from the installation program.

1.2.Â Target Audience

This snapshot is aimed
primarily at early adopters and various other users who want
to get involved with the ongoing development of FreeBSD. While
the FreeBSD development team tries its best to ensure that each
snapshot works as advertised, 10.4-STABLE is very
much a work-in-progress.

The basic requirements for using
this snapshot are technical proficiency with FreeBSD and an
understanding of the ongoing development process of FreeBSD
10.4-STABLE (as discussed on the FreeBSD-STABLE mailing list).

For those more interested in doing
business with FreeBSD than in experimenting with new FreeBSD
technology, formal releases (such as 10.3-RELEASE)
are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of
testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high
reliability and dependability.